Slayde, Book 2 (Chaos Time Serial) (4 page)

The mention of Hunter had Slayde going immediately rigid. His hands stilled and he leaned back. “I don’t like him,” was all he said.

“Why?”

He frowned. “Do I need to like everyone I meet, Sable? I just don’t like him okay.”

Her lips twisted. “You don’t seem to like anyone.”

“Part of my charm, baby.”

“Stop that.”

“Stop what?” he asked, anger beginning to surface in the tone of his voice.

“That.” She flicked her wrist at him. “Acting like an idiot. You always act like someone’s out to get you, so you bite first without even taking the time to see if maybe you’ve get them pegged all wrong.”

“You don’t know me,” he grumbled and pulled away.

She hated that he was doing that, but Hunter was her friend.

Sure, maybe she hadn’t known him much in this lifetime. But her memories, her visions they were becoming more and more real, and she knew they weren’t hallucinations. They were real moments in a time when she’d known and loved them all. Or at least Errol had. But where Errol ended and Sable began was starting to grow fuzzy. Their looks may not be the same, but most of who they were, what they loved was essentially the same.

And Errol had loved Slayde completely, even while she’d betrayed his trust. The history between those two was so convoluted and hard to understand, but she knew without a doubt the dark haired Errol had been devoted to Slayde, asshole and all.

It weirded Sable out at times, but it was part of why she was so aggravated with Slayde now. He was capable of so much more than this. He was even really likeable, if he’d take the time to let his guard down.

His jaw clenched and he looked away. She grabbed his chin, forcing him to look back at her. The pink slash of his mouth was tight and angry.

“I do know you, Slayde. From a different time, maybe. But I do know you.”

“Listen, kid...”

She reared her arm back and walloped him on the arm.

“Hey!” he snarled and the blues of his eyes began to bleed through with a veins of white. She noticed when he manifested his powers his eyes turned completely white, but she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. Deep in her soul, she knew it.

“I’m not a kid,” she growled.

“You’re seventeen. Kid. Jail bait.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll be eighteen in two weeks, but even if that weren’t the case, I’m no kid.” And using the entire force of her phoenix she willed the truth of her words into her sharp gaze. She may not know herself fully yet, but she knew as she grew more and more into her phoenix and became both bird and woman, she’d be even less human than the rest of them. She’d be like time itself, unending and eternal.

He glanced away, but not before she’d read the confusion burning bright in his eyes. Still not looking at her, he asked, “so what’s your deal, huh? Why if I’m such an arrogant prick do you keep hanging around me?”

“Because there’s more to you than this.” He finally looked at her and she nodded. “A lot more. I like you, Slayde. You say I barely know you, but that’s not true, I’ve known you forever. Our paths have always crossed and it’s always been the same between us.”

Whoa!
Did she really just say that? She hadn’t meant to say that, but it sorta slipped out and it felt so true and so right and she knew she wouldn’t, couldn’t, take it back.

He was breathing heavy, and were it not for the thick crust of mud on her palms, she knew she’d be sweating like a stuck pig. She was surprised he wasn’t laughing at her, at her stupid assertions. But maybe in some weird way, he was feeling this too.

“And what’s that?” he asked, and for reasons she couldn’t explain she knew her answer mattered to him.

She thought of Dragden then, awful terrible images of her nude body wrapped around his like that women at the tree, her face and eyes blissed out and she knew she could never let that happen again. History or the future-whatever—could not be allowed to repeat itself. It would not.

Which meant she’d have to keep her heart out of Slayde’s hands this time. It was becoming clear to her that what Dragden craved wasn’t Sable, or even the phoenix, the man had powers in his own right. The truth was, Dragden wanted what he couldn’t have. If Sable made the mistake of falling in love with Slayde again, history would be doomed to repeat itself.

But even telling herself that, didn’t mean she could just magically turn off her need to reassure him. There were times she could barely stand Slayde, but when the shadows crept into his eyes, and he let down the asshole visage, she couldn’t help but want to comfort him.

“Truth, Slayde. There’s truth between us.”

The muscle in his cheek ticked and he grabbed her fingers, giving them a gentle squeeze. “Truth, huh?”

She nodded.

“Then tell me your truth. Where are you from? What do you like?”

She cocked her head, and couldn’t understand the sudden fear that squeezed her belly in a tight fist. Being around him, it was all so conflicting. It would take nothing, she knew, to get right back to where they’d been. As much of a jerk as he acted with the others, he couldn’t do with her, it’s what made this so much harder. Her visions hadn’t shown her everything, hadn’t shown her how to defeat Dragden, but she was beginning to glean enough to know that she should stay away from Slayde.

But when he looked at her like he was now… with sadness in his eyes, and how he kept finding any reason to touch her… it made it so damn difficult.

Clearing her throat, she deflected. “I like chocolate, pink bunnies with long floppy ears, and rainbows.”

He snorted and grabbing another wad of mud splatted it hard against her chest. “You’re such a freaking liar.” His full lips curled upward and her heart banged so hard against her ribs she was surprised he hadn’t heard it.

The yearning for touch, for acceptance was so strong and she hated to admit it, but she was so weak. You’d think after years of being in an asylum she wouldn’t want touch. Because all she’d ever gotten inside had been beatings. Instead of kindness, she’d been spat upon, both figuratively and literally.

But instead of being the alley cat who’d been beaten over and over and over and who was now wild and cruel, she was the pitiful puppy desperate to be loved. It made her sick, because she recognized it for the weakness it was.

Her smile was shallow, with no heart behind it. “Yeah, well what about you?”

Blue eyes sparkled, his face was so open, so honest that it took her breath and made her fledgling resolve waver violently.

“The same,” he said, “that and hot girls covered in Aztec mud.”

“God,” she laughed despite herself.

They stayed that way for another hour, laughing and forgetting for a moment that the world around them was merely a façade—that this interlude wouldn’t last and that soon, they’d have to go fight evil head on.

Finally Slayde looked up into the sky, a frown grabbed his brows. Standing, he held his hand out to her. “I think we’re as muddy as we’re gonna get. We need to head back, because you need to get some sleep, boss man says you’ve got a big job ahead of you.”

The fear returned; that sour sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She hadn’t thought about what it would mean going into a Lord’s lair alone.

She didn’t even have a clue what a Lord was. Not really. Her visions weren’t really helpful here. Until Hunter had mentioned a Lord, she hadn’t even heard of it. He’d said that her phoenix would show her what needed showing, so how come she’d never seen or heard of a Lord until now?

“Sable?” Slayde’s voice gently tugged her back from the convoluted quagmire that was her mind.

Shaking her head at him, she sighed. “I’ll deny it until my last breath, but I’m scared.”

He threw his arm across her shoulder and gave her a gentle hug. “Don’t be. You’ll be great, Nix.”

She warmed to hear him call her that and she couldn’t deny that her toes curled a little.

“Besides we both know you like it hot.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re disgusting.”

“Me?”

“Me?” she mimicked in a high-pitched falsetto, “I might be young, but I’m not stupid. I caught the double entendre.”

“Okay, well obviously I’m the stupid one because don’t know what that means,” his eyes twinkled and she knew he knew, he was playing up the role he was most comfortable in, that of the dumb jock stereotype. She knew better. “But you do need your rest. So beam us up, Scotty.”

“Oh,” she glanced at her arms, “do you think the mud will melt off when I start my fire?”

“Nah.” He shook his head, “your clothes don’t, it just sort of vanishes, probably the same for this.”

She nodded and when her fire poured out of her skin it was exactly as she’d feared, for whatever reason the clothes shifted with her, but the mud melted. She gave an aggravated squawk and he laughed, shrugging his shoulders.

“I guess we’ll have to come back and do it again later for you,” he waggled his brows. Her feathers ruffled and she shook her head as she wrapped her large wings around him. Catching a stiff breeze, Sable glided back to the tree.

When they landed she shifted and whined. “Man, all that hard work.”

“What happened to you?” Arianna eyed Slayde up and down.

Sable couldn’t help feeling the tinniest bit pleased that he looked like the swamp thing and smelled like a wet dog. Arianna pinched her nose and jumped three trees over, closer to Hunter who was still laying silent.

He shrugged. “We have about another two hours before sun sets.”

She yawned and stretched her arms high above her head. She was actually kind of tired. She hadn’t slept much last night, or the night before. She could really use some sleep. It wasn’t the heat that bothered her, but the humidity was awful. Like trying to breath in wet fumes, it was almost too much.

“C’mon,” he sat and snapped a broad flat leaf off a neighboring branch before patting his thighs, “lay your head on my lap.”

She covered her nose. “No offense, but you stink and you’re filthy.”

“Oh shut up,” he grumbled affectionately, “so were you a few seconds ago. Now come here.”

“Wake me in an hour if I fall asleep,” she doubted she would, but just in case. “I need to remud.”

He nodded. “Promise.” And then gestured impatiently for her to come to him.

With a sigh, because she knew she really shouldn’t continue to get this comfortable with him, she went and laid her head down on his lip. Odd, but stench aside, it was nice. He started rubbing her head and fanning her face and just before she gave herself over to the little death she whispered, “My mom hated me.”

“What?” he asked, almost sounding shocked, as if he hadn’t expected her to say that.

To be honest, so was she. Everything she’d told herself back at the swamp, was just falling by the wayside. And while she didn’t give two craps about destiny, the fact of the matter was, she needed a friend and Slayde was filling that void. Seeing him back in that bar in New Skid Row, he’d called to her. Made something dormant inside of her come to life. She hated that she wanted this. Because she knew where it’d led last time.

And she was too smart to think that it might not happen this time. But she was a fly trapped in amber. She knew it was deadly before she sank into it, but it was so pretty she just didn’t care enough to stop.

Pissed at herself, but refusing to take it back, she sighed. “You asked me earlier to tell you something about me. She hates me, Slayde.”

His hand was large and warm and he cupped her cheek and she wanted to tell him to never stop touching her like that. But she couldn’t. This had to stop. “Well then she’s an idiot,” he finally whispered back gruffly.

“She called me a freak once. Said I scared her.”

He shook his head, and she almost purred because his hand was still on her, still rubbing and touching and healing things that she thought would never mend. “There’s not a thing wrong with you, Nix. Not one thing.”

“You don’t know me at all, Slayde.”

Rolling her head, she made to sit up, but he kept her firmly pressed to his thigh with a hand on her shoulder. Chewing on her bottom lip, she refused to look back at him.

“That’s a lie,” he snarled. “I saw you back there. I do know you, Sable. I don’t know how and honestly,” he laughed, but it lacked humor, “it makes me feel like I’m losing my head, but sometimes I swear I see—”

“What,” she rolled her eyes, “we play in the mud for a little while and you think you’ve got me figured out?” Swatting at his hand, she again tried to sit up, but again, he refused to let her.

“You don’t get to just walk away,” he snarled.

Anger churning in her belly, she was finally able to look at him. Because the anger was so much better than the wanting. The wanting killed, the anger made everything clear. Helped her to breathe and think and reason and realize this nonsense had to stop.

“Let me go, Slayde, this was a bad idea.”

His lip curled back. “You think I don’t know what’s going on? What the hell are you doing to me, little girl, huh?”

“What?” she hissed, knowing the level of her voice was rising and that soon Hunter would hear, and so would Synnergy. Not to mention the fact that they were hiding out in the middle of a jungle. That the key to their survival was stealth, to not letting the people below know they were here. But he was just making her so damn angry and it was all she could do not to scream.

“Yeah.” His face was all hard slashes and angry lines. “You find me in that skanked up shit hole, drag my ass out to the middle of time, and make me—”

His breathing was hard, she didn’t want to wait on bated breath to hear him finish that sentence, didn’t plunk in a million different possibilities of what it could all mean… but she did.

“What have you done to me?” he snarled and she heard movement to their right.

Hunter was obviously aware of what was going on, but she didn’t care.

“I haven’t done anything to you. We had a few laughs, thanks for that. Now let me go. Stop following me around, making me drag you everywhere. I don’t want to be around you, Slayde. I don’t want you touching me,” she wiggled hard to be released from his hold, but his grip was still absolute.